Friday, June 29, 2012

Ahhh... summer's here for sure and as we head out of June and on to the 4th of July my mind couldn't help but be led back to that one-of-a-kind summer tour of 1985.. this week we'll sample one of those shows from that tour, this one from Saratoga Springs, NY, that took place on June 27th, 1985. As always on this tour a very innovative setlist, highlighted for me with a *great* Stagger Lee (not a tune I would often enjoy), a first set Crazy Fingers(!)into Supplication, High TIme (we have been hearing alot of these on the Deadpod lately haven't we?) and a nicely done Hell in a Bucket. It's a fun show, and I hope you enjoy it my friends.. set 2 next week..
6/27/85 - Grateful Dead
Saratoga Performing Arts Center

8 comments:

Thank you for sharing this with your listeners professor!!! This was my first show. I was 9yo and my parents wanted me and my younger brother to experience a Dead show, and there was no better venue than SPAC to take your kids to. Lots of vivid memories from that night still exist as the 27th anniversary of the night has just passed. Next weekend I will see Phish there, and im sure the sights and sounds will take me back to that magical night in the Summer of '85! Thanks again for keeping these memories alive~Feestar

Thanks for sharing this Professor! This was my first show. I was 9yo and my parents had wanted myself and my younger brother to experience a Dead show. SPAC was the perfect venue with its huge lawn area. Lots of vivid memories still exist as the 27th anniversary of this magical night has just passed. Next weekend I will see Phish at SPAC, so you playing this show, this week, is def special to me! Thanks again for all of your time and efforts, the Deadpod is proof that the Music Never Stopped...

My brother had a spectacularly crisp low-gen audience recording of this show, which he used to turn me on to the boys. Then in '88 he and I were at SPAC together for a nice show, part of a sweet run through Rochester and Oxford, ME.

Interesting your comment about the Supplication, you say basically nice transition. You did not mention that they never even figured out how to get the lyrics out. Jerry tries to start this song 6 times to no avail. I wonder what was going on at the time, onstage? It remained a Supplication-ish jam, but never got under way. I was just surprised your comments didn't mention this. Your thoughts?

Well it's far from the only time they played an instrumental version of Supplication.. I was actually happy with the first set combination of supplication crazy fingers .. Agreed it could have been executed better.,,

Great choice professor, I was actually at this one, Hershey and the two Merriweathers. What a run that was. Led into a monster fall tour culminating in the 11/1 Richmond show. Yes, Jerry wasn't in the best of health, but 85 had some magical moments and very solid set lists. There were some very high high points and some low low points.